Your Cheatin' Heart Your Cheatin' Heart NEXT Ever been jealous? Worse yet, ever been jealous and then found out you had a pretty good reason to feel that way? If you said yes to either of these questions (and most people will), we have just the song for you. Hank Williams' 1953 release "Your Cheatin' Heart" was named country music's number one "Done-Me-Wrong Song" of all time. The song, which sounds pretty cheerful on the surface, is a bittersweet little piece of catharsis that has transcended boundaries of both time and genre. Since Williams' untimely death, which occurred before the song's release, "Your Cheatin' Heart" has been covered by everyone from Elvis to Ray Charles to Beck. For the true catharsis experience, try crooning along with Hank Sr. to this one. It's much, much safer than morphine.

About the Song Hank Williams (vocals), Chet Atkins (guitar), Don Helms (steel guitar) Album Shmoop Connections Explore the ways this song connects with the world and with other topics on Shmoop Now, it might be kind of taboo to say it, but death really can send an already-popular person's popularity through the roof. We saw it recently with Michael Jackson (whose sales skyrocketed after he died in 2009). We've seen it before with tragic stars like Kurt Cobain , Jimi Hendrix and Tupac. Just think about how people would react if a young star like, say, Lil Wayne died today. Imagine the public mourning. Imagine the record sales. That was Hank Williams, who started his career at age 15, made it big by 25, and died of a heart attack induced by drugs and alcohol on New Years Day, 1953, at only 29. He was famous for his public drunkenness, womanizing, and temper as much as for his great songs.

We here at Shmoop have called him "the most legendary figure in the history of country music" , and USA today called him "one of America's first celebrity death-cult heroes." Read on to find out how this skinny little man with bad social skills achieved so much glamour and glory. On the Charts "Your Cheatin' Heart" was recorded in 1952 and released after Williams' tragic death in 1953. The song topped the country music charts for six consecutive weeks. A cover of the song by Joni James also hit #2 on the Billboard pop chart in 1953. Another cover by Frankie Laine, released the same year, peaked at #18. Others who have covered the song include Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Don McLean and Beck. "Your Cheatin' Heart" was #5 on CMT's 2003 listing of the 100 Greatest Songs in Country Music . The song was #1 in CMT's 2004 listing of the 40 Greatest Done-Me-Wrong Songs (songs about cheating, heartbreak, and revenge).

"Your Cheatin' Heart" was listed at #213 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004. Prince's "1999" barely beat out Williams at #212. Hank Williams was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961. In 1999, Williams was inducted into the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame in Albuquerque, NM. Williams had Cherokee and Creek heritage. In 2010, the Pulitzer Prize committee gave Williams a special posthumous citation for "his craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life." Your Cheatin' Heart Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 17 January 2017 8:34 AM, PST NEWS 25 out of 28 people found the following review useful: The Spirit of Hank Williams Is Captured On Film from Van Buren, Arkansas 16 October 2005 This is an exceptional musical biography of one of the greatest singer-songwriters-entertainers of the 20th century.

Single handedly this country boy from the backwoods of Alabama changed American country music and in the process crossed over and changed popular music as well. His influence is still felt today from the legacy of Ray Charles to the driving force of Hank Williams Jr. Surprisingly the lead role in the movie is done quite well by George Hamilton, usually seen as just another pretty face in those days. It is amazing that fourteen-year-old Hank Jr. does such a fantastic job dubbing his dad's music for Hamilton. In some ways his rendition of Hank Sr.'s most poetic song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," is better than the original. He almost captures all the pain and loneliness of his dad's magnificent voice. Though there are many liberties taken with Hank Sr.'s life story, the film keeps the spirit of the man and the legend alive and burning brightly. One reason for the biographical changes besides poetic license to make the film more dramatic was the forced reliance on the no-talent Miss Audrey, Hank Sr.'s ex, as adviser for the movie and mentor for Hank Jr. who sang for his father.

This led to all kinds of omissions and changes such as no mention of Hank Sr.'s new bride to whom he was married just before his untimely passing. The latest findings on Hank Sr.'s death, that he died from mixing alcohol and pain killers of the early 50's variety, does not conflict all that much with the ending of the movie. He did die in the backseat of his Cadillac while being chauffeured to a New Year's show in Canton, Ohio. Undoubtedly he died New Year's Eve 1952 but was not pronounced dead until New Year's Day 1953. Hank therefore has the unenviable distinction of having died in two different calendar years. I was nine years old at the time and I remember that my family (poor country folks from the hills of Arkansas) took it as if it were a death in the family. That is how much of an icon he had become during his few short years of stardom. So even though the facts of Hank's life may be wrong from time to time in the movie, his spirit is captured making this a great tribute to the man and his music. Was the above review useful to you?

21 out of 22 people found the following review useful: ...this movie shows us the magic of songwriting... from Trinidad and Tobago 8 January 2006 If you are a songwriter or have ever written a song, you must marvel at the work of Hank Williams, and this movie shows us the magic of songwriting. Where do the greatest songs come from? And if we happen to write one, is it our responsibility to let the world hear it? Unlike so many other movies based on the lives of legendary musicians, this one is fun to watch (and not just listen). George Hamilton is great as Hank Williams, and it's his performance that saves the biopic from turning to a tiresome melodrama somewhere in the middle. You see, he doesn't seem to be all that serious even when the script calls him to be, and that my friend, however strange it may seem, is the key to success. So many biopics based on the stories of bitter ex wives and rivals suggest that our favorite artists never had a sense of humor. All the actors do a good job.

Beautiful Susan Oliver plays a credible nag, and although the script doesn't put the blame on anyone (which is good), the performance allows us to question her motives from the get go. All the songs heard in this movie are classics. We hear two different versions of I saw the light, and the later one makes otherwise a sad ending the perfect ending. Was the above review useful to you? 22 out of 24 people found the following review useful: Very Good from Oklahoma, USA 10 August 2002 Hank Williams was a very complex individual. Like all of us, he struggled with good and evil. The movie depicted a very simple man thrust into stardom. The sound track was done by a 14 year old Hank Williams Jr. The movie would have been much better if the songs of Hank Williams were included. I think the movie could be done better today with better actors. The story line could more true to the actual life of Hank Williams. Back in the 40's and 50's the life of a country singer was rough and rowdy. When this picture was made, Audrey Williams (Hank's wife) dictated every move. Trying to make Hank a legend.

It wasn't necessary, he already was a legend. The movie was also used to launch a young Hank Williams Jr into the national spot light. None of this was necessary. Hank Williams Jr. has become a legend in his own right in spite of his mother trying to make him another Hank Williams. At any rate, if you are interested in Hank Williams this is a very good movie and deserves your viewing. I hope to see another movie made about the life of Hank Williams. Was the above review useful to you? 16 out of 19 people found the following review useful: Misinformation - but fun from USA 20 November 2005 The movie is not based on fact, but rather a image spin. For example the last concert in the movie is to take place at 8 p.m. but people are arriving at noon -- the truth his Hank missed the 8 p.m. concert and had a 2 p.m. one the next day, which is the one where they announced his death. The movie claims he was "clean" or sober at the time of his death for several months, yet he had been hospitalized just two weeks before his death trying to sober him and kick his drug habit.

The movie deals with his drinking problems but never mentions the drug habit, considering he died of a suspected overdose (as many as three shots of morphine just hours before he died) the movie never mentions it. The movie also implies he was still with his first wife at the time of his death, when he had remarried and refused to see his first wife. If you take it as a work of fiction, it is fun, just no facts about a great singer who hated the stage. Was the above review useful to you? 14 out of 16 people found the following review useful: A gritty biopic with excellent acting from England 8 August 2003 This movie was a real surprise to me. I thought at first it would be a typical Hollywood biopic of a singer - boy starts off poor, is troubled when he hits the big time, starts messing up, picture ends tragically but celebrates his legend... much like a Mad magazine pastiche. "Your Cheatin Heart" seems to gloss over some of the events of Hank William's life. I didn't know all that much about him but I had that impression. Even so, this is a gripping picture. I was transfixed and I don't like country music.

George Hamilton can act! He strongly expresses Williams' conflicts over his career and marriage. Susan Oliver is a revelation too. Why wasn't she offered more films? (I knew I saw her somewhere before: she was Vina in Star Trek's "The Cage".) The ending is tragic and the viewer can probably see it coming even if he or she doesn't know about Williams' early death. Still, the scene of the empty stage had me in tears. The film shows deep feeling for Williams' music and his fans. By far the best thing about Your Cheatin' Heart is Williams' songs, especially the rendition of "I'm so Lonesome I could Cry", which was what I was doing. Was the above review useful to you? 11 out of 13 people found the following review useful: The real Hank Williams Story deserves better. from Victoria, BC 5 December 2006 While watching this 1964 biopic, I constantly drew the conclusion that this story needs and deserves to be updated in our contemporary styles a la 'I Walk the Line' and 'Ray'.

Each time we hear Hank's songs and recall in our minds the true story of his life and gifted talent, we know that he deserves an honest portrayal on film with higher than average production values. I liked that this film was in B&W. It made the setting of the '40s and early '50s realistic. Unfortunately, the movie sets looked too incredibly stock studio back lot. The half a dozen seedy bars down the back alley beside the Grand Ole Opry was suddenly too stylized a scene (and consequently, less believable). Hank and Audrey's super-stardom mansion looked like they borrowed it from a David Niven melodrama set. George Hamilton was OK as Hank. Sometimes I believed him as Hank, sometimes I just saw George Hamilton. Often, the seams were showing in this film: Hollywood studio, 1964. The story seemed one-sided (the Audrey Williams story)and with too much standard Hollywood melodrama (Red Buttons: Look off into the distance past the camera and make a speech to Hank. Repeat later.). Based on what we know of Hank's real story, much of it seems to be missing in this movie.

We saw Hank fall off a horse and hurt his back but where's the pain killers that contributed to his death? (And I won't mention the fact that in the end he was remarried to a second woman.) The music in this movie often bothered me. Hank's song were great but their renditions (apparently by Hank Williams Jr.) sounded too Nashville studios, hi-fi 1964. (I don't remember Hank Sr. being accompanied by back-up singers...oooh, aaah!) This movie almost felt like the altered version of a great and troubled performer's story...safe to tell to the kids and grandma ('Don't mention the pills, just say he died of a broken heart.'). The ending was fitting for the great Hank, though. A filled theater and an empty stage. The show that he was headed to but didn't make. Because I know of the greatness of his talent and contributions to music, I thought that it was right on the mark. It put tears in my eyes. It was the best and truest part of the movie. Was the above review useful to you?

11 out of 14 people found the following review useful: A very moving story about the late, great Hank Williams from Ontario, Canada 18 August 2002 I saw this movie in Scotland around the time of its original release and for the first time in my life, I witnessed a movie audience stand and applaud a film and ... there wasn't a dry eye in the theatre at the ending. A brilliant portrayal of H.W. by George Hamilton I have been trying to buy a copy of this film for years and at last I can see the movie again, 38 years later. Thank You! Jim Reid. Was the above review useful to you? 15 out of 22 people found the following review useful: Unworthy and Disrespectful Bio of the Great Hank Williams from United States 3 September 2006 Few today recall or ever knew the MGM biography of Hank Williams was under development --- on hold --- for 10 years while MGM squabbled with Audrey Williams over the script, a script which eventually dishonored country music's greatest-ever star.

It's been over 30 years since I saw this picture, but I remember it was (1) the most anticipated movie I ever saw, (2) a great disappointment, and (3) a great pleasure to see a movie about Hank despite the dishonesty and Audrey's self-serving spin job. In 1982, a man who really understood Hank Williams and his legacy created a stage play in London, England called "Hank Williams, the Show He Never Gave." In 1983, this was made into a movie, and has been out in both VHS and DVD. The 1983 movie, like Hank's music, is emotional enough to tear your heart out. People who love Hank Williams seldom explain his legacy to others, as it's too personal and heartfelt; something to be tucked carefully inside one's own heart. Our love for him is intense, internal; never fading with time's passage. Was the above review useful to you? 9 out of 14 people found the following review useful: Wonderful biography of Hank Williams Sr. from United States 17 September 1999 This movie is a warm and touching portrait of the late great Hank Williams, Sr.

George Hamilton really makes you feel the heartbreak behind each performance. Susan Oliver is also fine as his long-suffering wife. I remember seeing this film at least twice during the 1960's. In fact, I was inspired to copy one scene, but for modesty's sake, you'll have to see the film. Was the above review useful to you? 4 out of 6 people found the following review useful: Surprisingly Good from NY, NY 11 July 2005 The sequence before the credits is beautifully acted and filmed. It's extremely rare that a child playing the younger version of a character is more impressive than the lead. But the boy playing little Hank Williams gives a more nuanced performance than George Hamilton. George Hamilton. He sure does seem like odd casting in this movie. The archetypal suave playboy playing a country and western singer. Hmm. And Susan Oliver as his wife. She's good, and Hamilton is not bad. But again: It seems like casting against type. Red Buttons and Arthur O'Connell, in the other hand, fit snugly into their supporting roles. Hamilton lip-syncs the brilliant Williams songs.

He is kind of deadpan but maybe that's what the guy was like. I don't pretend to know. A couple decades later, Jessica Lange did something similar in "Sweet Dreams." She surely wouldn't sound like the great Patsy Cline when she sings but oh! Now there is a movie! This one lacks its warmth and humor. But it's filmed in a noble manner. It strays occasionally, when a Williams song is orchestrated with syrupy strings as background. All in all, though, it's definitely worth watching, if only to hear the fantastic songs. Was the above review useful to you? Page 1 of 3: Your Cheatin' Heart - Rolling Stone Your Cheatin' Heart All Stories Legend has it that this song came to Hank Williams when he was thinking about his first wife while driving around with his second; Wife No. 2 wrote down the lyrics for him in the passenger seat. After polishing it with co-writer Fred Rose, Williams recorded “Your Cheatin' Heart” during the last sessions he ever did, on September 23rd, 1952.

He told a friend, “It's the best heart song I ever wrote.” He never got to hear it become one of the greatest country standards of all time, having died in the backseat of his car on New Year’s Day 1953 at age 29, weeks before its release. Don’t Miss a Story Sign up for our newsletter to receive breaking news directly in your inbox. We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy How we use your email address Trending Ranked on a scale from 1 to 10, the trending score reflects the number of users reading a story in real time. What is this? Hank Williams: Songwriting Legacy Lives (Part 1 of 2) | CMT Hank Williams: Songwriting Legacy Lives (Part 1 of 2) by Tom Robinson 12/30/2002 Jan. 1, 2003 marks the 50th anniversary of Hank Williams’ death. In the first part of this two-part series, CMT.com focuses on Williams’ greatest legacy — his songwriting. Wednesday (Jan.

1), in the second installment, writer Tom Robinson talks to Charles Carr, the college student who drove the Cadillac when Williams died on his way to a concert in Ohio. Hank Williams walked into Nashville’s Castle Studio on Sept. 23, 1952, to record, unaware it would be his last session. He left on a high note. The lanky hillbilly singer poured out his raw emotions on four songs that would become country music standards. Accompanied by talented musicians including young guitarist Chet Atkins and steel guitarist Don Helms, the session produced “Take These Chains From My Heart,” “I Could Never Be Ashamed of You,” “Kaw-Liga” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” Helms had never heard “Your Cheatin’ Heart” until that afternoon. Williams penned that song — and “Kaw-Liga” — just a month prior while relaxing in a cottage on Kowaliga Bay in Alabama. Williams’ pal and publisher Fred Rose fine-tuned the songs, making them studio-ready for that autumn session. Williams strummed out the tune and sang through a few lines of the composition to get warmed up. He then turned to Helms and asked for an intro.

“You know what to give me,” Williams said. Helms carefully laid his thumbs on the double-neck steel and struck swelling chords that produced arguably the most famous introduction to a country song. In session terminology, they nailed it in one take. That one take, which sold millions of copies, was the only time Helms played “Your Cheatin’ Heart” with Williams. Less than four months later, Williams died on New Year’s Day 1953 in the back seat of his chauffeured Cadillac en route to a concert in Canton, Ohio. “One take, that was it,” said Helms, a longtime member of Williams’ Drifting Cowboys band and a close friend. “We also recorded ‘Kaw-Liga’ that day, and it took a few takes to get that drum beat down just right,” Helms recalled. “That session was the last time I saw Hank alive. He had left Nashville by then but had come back for the recording session.” In 50 years since Williams’ passing, his compositions have crossed all musical genres. From the Grateful Dead to George Jones , an impressive roster has recorded Williams’ compositions that in many cases resulted in hits. Everyone has a favorite Williams song.

For Helms it’s “Cold, Cold Heart.” He recalls, “That was Hank’s favorite, too. ‘Cold, Cold Heart’ says a lot and is easy for me to play. I could play it in three-part harmony. I could play my interpretation. When Hank wrote it he let Fred [Rose] look at it. He changed that one line from tortured mind to doubtful mind. Hank welcomed that input from Fred.” Today, Helms performs with Jett Williams, daughter of the country music icon. In concert Jett never sings “Cold, Cold Heart,” but introduces Helms, who plays a tearful instrumental of the classic. “She’s never sung it because she knows it’s my favorite,” said Helms. “I appreciate that.” Jett Williams was born Jan. 6, 1953 — just two days after her father’s funeral. It’s well chronicled how as an adult she set out and discovered her true bloodlines. When Williams wrote “Your Cheatin’ Heart” and “Kaw-Liga” in the Alabama cabin, he was accompanied on the trip with his girlfriend Bobbie Jett who was pregnant with the daughter.

Jett Williams took an emotional journey last summer to the Kowaliga Bay site to dedicate the cabin that had been restored to its 1952 likeness, as when her parents stayed there that mid-August. While those two songs hold a special place for Williams’ singing daughter, her favorite dad composition is “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” She explains, “I call it his sensory song. He asks you to hear a lonesome whistle and see a robin weep. It’s also a song about missing someone — something in your life no longer there.” “My dad never used the same formula in his songs,” she noted. “‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry’ is four verses and no chorus. Look at ‘Kaw-Liga.’ I can’t think of a song where you do verses in minor and shift to major for the chorus. The meter of the song creates that song.

‘Kaw-Liga’ was a novelty song, but because of the unique structure, ‘Kaw-Liga’ was innovative.” Merle Kilgore was an aspiring songwriter and singer in Shreveport, La., when he hung around the Louisiana Hayride and carried the guitar cases of the country stars as they prepared to play on the KWKH radio show. Kilgore wasted little time becoming friends and absorbing songwriting tidbits from Williams. In short order Kilgore would pen the Webb Pierce hit “More and More,” followed by Claude King ’s “Wolverton Mountain” and Johnny Cash ’s “Ring of Fire,” the latter co-written with June Carter Cash . “Hank would say everybody likes to feel sorry for themselves,” recalled Kilgore. “He’d say, ‘You write ‘em, sing ‘em and they say that’s the story of their lives.’ He carried a little spiral notebook and a little pencil stuck down in the spiral. He’d write down lyrics.” Merle, who today manages Hank Williams Jr. , has his favorite Williams composition. “Cold, Cold Heart,” he said. “It’s just straight forward and simple. It’s great.

I’m not sure what Hank Jr.’s all-time favorite is. But I’ve heard him say ‘House of Gold.’” “Hank Sr.’s longevity is unbelievable,” remarked Kilgore. “They [fans] just love to hear him sing. They’ve recycled his old stuff. They don’t like anybody to sing with him and they don’t want you to add strings. Just like to hear Hank singing.” Hank Williams,1923-1953: He Wrote Songs About Love and Heartbreak Hank Williams,1923-1953: He Wrote Songs About Love and Heartbreak November 21, 2009 Email to a Friend Print Williams’ songs of the 1950s have been recorded by many artists and are still popular today. Transcript of radio broadcast: VOICE ONE: PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Every week at this time, we tell you a story about people who played a part in the history of the United States. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Larry West and I tell the story of country and western singer and songwriter, Hank Williams.

(MUSIC) VOICE TWO: That was the record Hank Williams made when he first tried to interest recording companies in his music. None of the companies liked it at the time. But a few years later, the high sharp voice of Hank Williams would cut like a knife through the music world. When he sang his songs, people listened. They are still listening, long after his death. VOICE ONE: Hank Williams was born in nineteen twenty-three on a small farm near Mount Olive, Alabama. Like most people at that time in the southern United States, the Williams family was poor. Hank's father could not work. He had been injured in World War One. He spent many years in a hospital when Hank was a boy. The Williams family did not own many things. But it always had music. Hank sang in church. When he was eight years old, he got an old guitar and taught himself to play. From then on, music would be the most important thing in his life. VOICE TWO: By the time Hank was fourteen, he had already put together his own group of musicians. They played at dances and parties. They also played at a small local radio station.

They were known as "Hank Williams and his Drifting Cowboys." For more than ten years, Hank remained popular locally, but was unknown nationally. Then, in nineteen forty-nine, he recorded his first major hit record. The song was "Lovesick Blues." (MUSIC) Hank Williams and his group performed "Lovesick Blues" on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry house in Nashville, Tennessee. People in the theater would not let him stop singing. They made him sing the song six times. After years of hard work, Hank Williams had become a star. VOICE ONE: Hank wrote many songs in the years that followed. Singers are still recording them today. They may sing the songs in the country and western style -- the way Hank wrote them. Or they may sing them in other popular styles. Either way, the songs will always be his. Hank Williams wrote both happy songs and sad songs. But the sad songs are remembered best. When Hank sang a sad song, those who listened knew it was about something that had happened to him. Somehow, he was able to share his feelings in his music.

One of the most famous of these sad songs is "Your Cheatin' Heart." One music expert said: "Your Cheatin' Heart" is so sad, it sounds like a judge sentencing somebody to a punishment worse than death itself.” (MUSIC) "Your Cheatin' Heart" was written in the early nineteen fifties. It has been recorded by more than fifty singers and groups in almost every style of popular music. VOICE TWO: Many years after Hank Williams' death, new fans of his music have asked why he could put so much of his life into his songs. There is no easy answer to that question. Hank Williams had many problems during his life. He and his wife Audrey did not have a happy marriage. Many of his songs seemed to ask: “Why can't we make this marriage work?” Many people knew that when Hank sang this song, "Cold Cold Heart", he was singing about his wife and their problems. Those who had similar problems felt that Hank was singing about them, too. (MUSIC) VOICE ONE: Hank Williams drank too much alcohol. Those who knew Hank Williams say he did not have the emotional strength to deal with his problems. They say he often felt he had no control over his life.

Everything seemed to be moving too fast. He could not stop. And he could not escape. He had money and fame. But they did not cure his loneliness, his drinking, or his marriage problems. Hank was always surrounded by people, especially after he became famous. None, however, could break through the terrible sadness that seemed to follow him everywhere. One song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", expresses his feelings of loneliness. (MUSIC) VOICE TWO: When Hank Williams began to record his songs, country and western music was not popular with most Americans. It was the music of the poor farming areas of the South. However, because Hank's songs told of real-life troubles with such great emotion, something unusual began to happen to his music. Radio stations that had never played country and western music began to play Hank Williams' songs. Famous recording stars who never sang country and western music began recording songs written by Hank Williams. He had created a collection of music that stretched far past himself and his times. Hank Williams' life and career were brief. He died on New Year's Day, nineteen fifty-three. He was twenty-nine years old.

(MUSIC) VOICE ONE: You have been listening to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Larry West and Tony Riggs. PEOPLE IN AMERICA was written by Paul Thompson. Tom Hiddleston to play Hank Williams - Telegraph Film news Tom Hiddleston to play Hank Williams The Avengers star Tom Hiddleston will star as country music great Hank Williams in a new biopic called I Saw the Light Tom Hiddleston will play Hank Williams By Martin Chilton , Culture Editor online 11:09AM BST 13 Jun 2014 Follow The Avengers star Tom Hiddleston is set to follow in the footsteps of George Hamilton by playing the country music great Hank Williams in a biopic. Hiddleston, best known for portraying the villain Loki in The Avengers and Thor, will star as Williams in a 2015 film called I Saw the Light. The film will be based on Colin Escott, George Merritt and William MacEwen's 1994 book, Hank Williams: The Biography. Director Marc Abraham adapted the screenplay himself and he aims to begin shooting in Louisiana this October.

When Hank Williams died of heart failure, aged 29, in 1953. His body was found in the back of a car with some empty beer cans and an unfinished song lyric. This is the stuff of country legend and Williams has long been a subject of fascination for film makers. Hamilton starred as Williams in the 1964 film Your Cheatin' Heart. Hank Williams died at the age of 29 PHOTO: AP Related Articles The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams, CD review 29 Sep 2011 Williams can lay claim to one of the greatest portfolios of songs in the history of popular music and Bob Dylan once said: "I started writing songs after I heard Hank Williams." Among Williams' best known songs are I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You), Hey, Good Lookin, Jambalaya (On the Bayou), (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle, You Win Again and Your Cheatin' Heart.

Londoner Hiddleston, 31, will not only learn Williams's Alabama accent but will master his music, too, as Deadline reports that producers have secured the rights to several Williams songs, including Your Cheatin' Heart. After news of the casting emerged on Thursday night, Hiddleston posted a photograph of himself as Williams, posing with hat, cowboy boots and acoustic guitar. Tom Hiddleston in a publicity shot for I Saw The Light. PHOTO on @twhiddleston How did country music star Hank Williams really die? | New York Post How did country music star Hank Williams really die? Modal Trigger Getty Images The new biopic “I Saw the Light,” in theaters Friday, traces country legend Hank Williams’ struggles with alcohol, infidelity — and the weight of being one of the biggest music stars in the United States, following hits such as his cover of “Lovesick Blues” (1949) and his own “Why Don’t You Love Me” (1950). But one big thing is left out of the movie: the singer’s mysterious death. It was something he apparently saw coming. On the evening of Dec.

30, 1952, the restless, rail-thin 29-year-old tossed and turned in bed at his home in Montgomery, Ala. When new wife Billie Jean asked what was the matter, she claimed his reply was, “I think I see God comin’ down the road.” Hank Williams in 1948Getty Images Within 48 hours of Williams’ prediction, he had met his maker, but the circumstances surrounding how he died have given rise to one of music history’s greatest debates. “I think he had a profound sadness in him,” says Marc Abraham, writer and director of the new biopic. “Tom [Hiddleston, the actor portraying Williams] puts across that impending sense of doom. Hank felt there was something bad around the corner.” There is a framework of events that is largely agreed upon, starting with Williams being chauffeured to a planned New Year’s Eve show in Charleston, W.Va. The singer, who suffered from a back problem, was given a sedative by his regular doctor — who had allegedly purchased a fake medical diploma through the mail and was rumored to frequently overprescribe — before setting off with a college student named Charles Carr acting as his driver.

But inclement weather meant they couldn’t get to Charleston, so the concert was canceled and they instead made a pit stop at the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville, Tenn. Williams had already been drinking when he was given a shot of B12 and morphine by the hotel doctor. Just before midnight, Carr set about getting Williams to a planned New Year’s Day show in Canton, Ohio. Most accounts have Williams looking and sounding groggy, and hotel porters allegedly had to carry him to the car. About six or seven hours later, on the morning of Jan. 1, 1953, Carr realized his passenger was dead and already beset with rigor mortis. When the singer’s death was announced to the waiting crowd at the Palace Theatre in Canton, they sang Williams’ “I Saw the Light” in unison. ‘I think I see God comin’ down the road.’ - Hank Williams to wife Billie Jean shortly before he died But suspicions about this final journey arose immediately. Officials listed his cause of death as heart failure but noted that body contusions meant he had recently been in a fight.

At the time, Carr’s nervous account of the final few hours of the journey were enough to raise questions of foul play, especially when some witnesses — including a police officer — oddly claimed to have seen a soldier also riding in the car. Some biographers (including Colin Escott, whose book “I Saw the Light” provides the basis for the film) have suggested that Williams may have even died at the Andrew Johnson in Knoxville, and that Carr had unwittingly driven several hundred miles with a corpse. It was also something that was suggested by the initial police report. (Carr died in 2013 and, for much of his life, kept silent on his journey with Williams.) But as Jack Neely, executive director of the Knoxville History Project, explains, local folklore tells a different story. “In recent years, a Knoxvillian . . . has been telling people he was the doorman at the Andrew Johnson, and he says Hank was conscious and joking when he left.” Carr had insisted that Williams couldn’t have been dead in Knoxville, because they had spoken briefly in the car after leaving town.

Local lore also places Williams at a Knoxville hospital getting a second shot of morphine — this in addition to the one administered by the hotel doctor — that might have caused a drug overdose. There’s so much conjecture that both “I Saw the Light” and the 1964 biopic “Your Cheatin’ Heart” chose to avoid depicting the final journey altogether. “I actually wrote 13 pages for that scene but took them out because they felt superfluous,” explains Abraham. “To have a kid [Carr] turn around, feel his pulse and realize [Williams] was dead, it felt anticlimactic.” Besides, Neely adds, “No matter which account you pick, there are going to be people who say, ‘That’s not how it happened.’ ” Elizabeth Olsen and Tom Hiddleston, who plays Hank Williams, in “I Saw the Light.”Courtesy Everett Collection Share this: Hank Williams | About Hank Williams | American Masters | PBS About Hank Williams Hank Williams: Honky Tonk Blues About Hank Williams By: Colin Escott Hank Williams in 1948. Photo: MGM Records More than fifty years after his death, Hank Williams ranks among the most powerfully iconic figures in American music.

Iconic to the point that man and myth are inextricably entwined. He set the agenda for contemporary country songcraft and sang his songs with such believability that we feel privy to his world, despite the fact that he left no in-depth interviews and just a few letters. His brief life and tragic death have only compounded his appeal. Born in the tiny settlement of Mount Olive in south-central Alabama on September 17, 1923, Hiram “Hank” Williams grew up with a sense of apartness that never left him. A spinal condition, in all likelihood spina bifida occulta, ensured that he couldn’t work in the same occupations as his contemporaries: logging or farming. When Hank was six years old, his aloneness was compounded when his father, Lon, went into a veterans’ hospital; Hank would see him just twice in the next seven years. His mother, Lilly, ran rooming houses, first in Greenville, Alabama, and then in Montgomery. Local influences shaped Hank’s music more profoundly than the big stars of the day. The gospel songs of both the black and white communities taught him that music, whether sacred or secular, must have a spiritual component.

He learned traditional folk ballads and early country songs from neighbors and friends, and blues from a local African-American street musician, Rufus Payne (also known as Teetot). Payne not only taught Hank how to play the guitar, but helped him overcome his innate shyness. The blues feel that suffuses much of Hank Williams’ work is almost certainly Teetot’s legacy. Entering local talent talent contests soon after moving to Montgomery in 1937, Hank had served a ten-year apprenticeship by the time he scored his first hit, “Move It on Over,” in 1947. He was twenty-three then, and twenty-five when the success of “Lovesick Blues” (a minstrel era song he did not write) earned him an invitation to join the preeminent radio barndance, Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. His star rose rapidly. He wrote songs compulsively, and his producer/music publisher, Fred Rose, helped him isolate and refine those that held promise.

The result was an unbroken string of hits that included “Honky Tonkin’,” “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” “Mansion on the Hill,” “Cold, Cold Heart,” “I Can’t Help It (If I’m Still in Love with You),” “Honky Tonk Blues,” “Jambalaya,” “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” and “You Win Again.” He was a recording artist for six years, and, during that time, recorded just 66 songs under his own name (together with a few more as part of a husband-and-wife act, Hank & Audrey, and a more still under his moralistic alter ego, Luke the Drifter). Of the 66 songs recorded under his own name, an astonishing 37 were hits. More than once, he cut three songs that became standards in one afternoon. The fourteen “Luke the Drifter” recordings were narrations and talking blues. Luke the Drifter walked with Hank Williams and talked through him. If Hank Williams could be headstrong and willful, a backslider and a reprobate, then Luke the Drifter was compassionate and moralistic, capable of dispensing all the sage advice that Hank Williams ignored.

Luke the Drifter had seen it all, yet could still be moved to tears by a chance encounter on his travels. Although little known in comparison with the hits, the “Luke the Drifter” narrations were the closest Hank Williams came to bearing his soul. As a songwriter, Hank Williams matured surprisingly quickly, and his fractious relationship with his first wife, Audrey (whom he’d married in 1943), provided him with much of the raw material. After Tony Bennett covered “Cold, Cold Heart” in 1951, his songs found a broader market, a market that Hank himself would have found it hard to penetrate. To the end, he was unapologetically Southern, unable to make the compromises that Elvis Presley would make just a few years later. But Williams’ songs went where he couldn’t, and from 1951 onward, there was a rush to reinterpret them for the pop market. Ironically, those pop versions, which comfortably outsold Williams’ originals in the early Fifties, now sound over-ornamented and outdated, while Williams’ spare and haunting versions sound ageless. It all fell apart remarkably quickly.

Hank Williams grew disillusioned with success, and the unending travel compounded his back problem. A spinal operation in December 1951 only worsened the condition. Career pressures and almost ceaseless pain led to recurrent bouts of alcoholism. He missed an increasing number of showdates, frustrating those who attempted to manage or help him. His wife, Audrey, ordered him out of their house in January 1952, and he was dismissed from the Grand Ole Opry in August that year for failing to appear on Opry-sponsored showdates. Returning to Shreveport, Louisiana, where he’d been an up-and-coming star in 1948, he took a second wife, Billie Jean Jones, and hired a bogus doctor who compounded his already serious physical problems with potentially lethal drugs. In late December 1952, Hank Williams returned to Montgomery, attempting to recuperate, but decided to meet two prearranged showdates on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. He died en route, aged just twenty-nine. Contrary to myth, Williams did not die with his star in the ascendant.

“Jambalaya” had been one of the best-selling records of 1952, but while his records were topping the charts, he was so unreliable that he was reduced to playing beerhalls in Texas and Louisiana. There’s a persistent myth that he would have returned to the Opry had he not died on New Year’s Day 1953, but surviving correspondence suggests nothing more than a few more beerhall gigs. On a record released after his death, Williams sang of being pursued by the “Pale Horse and His Rider.” On a home recording made shortly before his death, he directly addressed “The Angel of Death.” It’s impossible to escape the feeling that he lived with the spirits every day, and drank in part to escape them. Timing is everything and Hank Williams came and went at precisely the right time. Country music was a cottage industry at the time of his arrival, yet, just a few years after his death, it was shaking off its “hillbilly” image. An artist as unapologetically rural as Hank Williams would have been shown the door.

Elvis Presley appeared on the Grand Ole Opry just two years after Hank was dismissed, and Nashville’s response to Elvis was to nurture artists who could cross between country and pop, leading to the birth of the Nashville Sound. Hank Williams didn’t belong in the Nashville Sound era, but his tragically early death spared him the indignity of trying. Instead, his songs have lived on, reintrepreted by artists as diverse as Bob Dylan, jazz diva Norah Jones, crooner Perry Como, R&B star Dinah Washington, and British punk band, The The. The Death of Hank Williams "I Won't Be Home No More" The Death of Hank Williams By Maura Kistler Legendary country music star Hank Williams was found dead in Oak Hill, Fayette County, on January 1, 1953. This publicity photograph of Williams is courtesy of Charleston Newspapers, date unknown. New Year's Day 1953 dawned cold and gray in the town of Oak Hill, Fayette County.

While many residents rolled over to enjoy a few extra hours of sleep on this bleak holiday morning, a drama was unfolding downtown, which would become an enduring part of Oak Hill lore, complete with tall tales, conflicting accounts, and larger-than-life characters. As the rest of the world would soon learn, country music singer and composer Hank Williams had quietly rolled into town early that day in the backseat of his brand-new, baby-blue Cadillac convertible. At the age of 29, he was dead. Questions about the incident, such as what time he had died, how he had died, what became of his hat, and exactly what Oak Hill should do now with the dubious distinction of being the "last stop of Hank's final journey," still elicit lively debate, 50 years later. Hiram "Hank" Williams was born near Georgiana, Alabama, on September 17, 1923. Referred to by some as the "Hillbilly Shakespeare," he had a brief but phenomenally successful career, recording 130 songs, including 11 number-one hits.

These included "Lovesick Blues," "Why Don't You Love Me?" "Hey, Good-Lookin'," "Your Cheatin' Heart," and many others. Williams had been the most popular act on the "Grand Ole Opry" for three years, until he was fired in August 1952 for being unreliable - one side effect of his ongoing problem with alcohol. While his musical style may not have been to everyone's taste, his emotional, deeply personal songs delivered in a trademark hillbilly twang have proven to be timeless. Hank Williams and his music are particularly revered in West Virginia. While he made few live appearance in the state during his four-year performing career, his popular recordings and radio broadcasts secured him a strong West Virginia audience, both during his lifetime and in the years following his death. In Oak Hill, feelings about Hank Williams are mixed. Some residents have been deeply moved by what occurred here on January 1, 1953, to the point of erecting a monument and lobbying for the construction of a local museum in Williams' honor. Others seem anxious to forget their community's brush with the troubled young musician, while still others remain ambivalent or uninformed about this captivating chapter of Oak Hill history.

Undertaker Joe Tyree, retired police officer Howard Janney, and automobile dealer Ike Brown were all in Oak Hill on that fateful morning, and each played an active role in the events that took place here. Howard Janney was one of responding police officers, Joe Tyree was the funeral director who took care of the body, and Ike Brown took part in the coroner's inquest. Young men just doing their jobs, they could never have imagined that their phones would still be ringing 50 years later, as fans, journalists, and the just-plain-curious continue to call. Fortunately, these are gracious men who have clear memories and share a down-to-earth perspective about the story and their places in it. They recount the events of that day simply, without sensationalism, speculation, or drama of any kind. You can read the rest of this article in the Winter 2002 issue of Goldenseal, available in bookstores, libraries or direct from Goldenseal .

Question: Which country music star, writer of the song Your Cheatin' Heart, died on New Year's Day 1953?
Answer: Hank Williams